Witcher 3 Wild Hunt Remastered: What Is Gear Reforging and How Does It Work?

• TL;DR
• Gear Reforging is The Witcher 3 Remastered’s transmog system — change your gear’s look without changing its stats.
• Only two master craftsmen offer this service: Yoana (armor) and Hattori (swords).
• You unlock appearances by adding equipment and crafting diagrams to your inventory.
• Blood and Wine dyes applied to gear carry over after Reforging.
• Reforging costs crowns — not free, but purely cosmetic.
• Importing a save? Anything not in your inventory or stash at that moment will not be in your catalog.

Gear Reforging is one of the biggest new features in The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt Remastered. It is something players have wanted for a long time. The idea is simple: you find the best gear for your build, and you make it look like whatever you want. Your stats stay the same. Only the appearance changes.

This guide explains how Reforging works, where to unlock it, what it costs, and what you need to know before you import an old save into the Remastered version.

If you are still putting together your build, check out our Witcher 3 Wild Hunt Remastered best builds guide before deciding which gear set to chase.

What Is Gear Reforging in The Witcher 3 Remastered?

Gear Reforging is The Witcher 3 Remastered’s transmog system. Transmog is a term used in RPGs for changing the visual appearance of your equipment without altering its stats, damage, or armor values.

In The Witcher 3 Remastered, you can Reforge your equipment to change its appearance without affecting its stats. This means you can wear the strongest armor in the game while looking like you are dressed in any other set you have collected. The same applies to swords.

It is a purely cosmetic feature. Your damage, armor, and bonuses stay exactly the same. Reforging does not make you stronger or weaker. It just lets you control how Geralt looks.

Witcher 3 Wild Hunt Remastered What Is Gear Reforging

Who Offers Gear Reforging?

Only master craftsmen Yoana and Hattori offer this service. They are both existing characters from the base game. They were not added just for Remastered.

• Yoana – Handles armor Reforging. She is located at Crow’s Perch in Velen. You need to complete her rescue quest before she offers the service.
• Hattori – Handles sword Reforging. He is located in Novigrad. You need to complete his questline before he opens up Reforging.

Both are craftsmen you likely visited before for standard crafting. Both can be reached as early as level two or three if you know the shortest path to each. You do not need to wait until the mid or late game to start using this feature.

How Do You Unlock Appearances to Reforge?

You unlock appearances by adding new equipment and crafting diagrams to your inventory. Every piece of armor or sword you loot or craft gets added to your personal Reforge catalog automatically.

This is important. The catalog only knows about gear you currently own or have owned. If a piece of gear is not sitting in your inventory or stash at the moment you import your save into Remastered, it will not be in your catalog, and you will need to find or craft it all over again.

A fresh character starts with an empty catalog. Every piece of gear you loot or craft from that point forward gets added automatically as you pick it up.

How the Reforge Menu Works

Once you visit Yoana or Hattori and open the Reforge menu, the interface is split into two panels.

• The left panel shows every item currently in your catalog, sorted into tabs by slot — chest, hands, feet, legs, and so on for armor, or a sword tab for weapons.
• The right panel shows your actual equipped gear slots.

Clicking an item in the left panel automatically places it into the matching slot on the right, assigning that item’s appearance to whatever piece of gear you are currently wearing in that slot.

You can undo a Reforge at any time. There is no risk to experimenting. You can revert a piece back to its original appearance, so there is no risk in trying out different combinations before committing.

Does Gear Reforging Cost Anything?

Yes. Reforging is not free. Every item you add to the Reforge process increases the total price in crowns, so a full six-piece armor Reforge will cost noticeably more than swapping a single chest piece.

The cost scales with how many pieces you are changing at once. A single weapon swap is cheap. A complete armor set Reforge will be noticeably more expensive.

If crowns are tight, standard farming methods — like selling crafted goods or looting high-value areas — still work in Remastered. Save up before doing a full set transmog in one visit.

What Happens to Blood and Wine Dyes?

If you applied dyes from the Blood and Wine expansion to any of your gear, those dyes are not lost when you Reforge. Dyes from Blood and Wine applied to equipment will carry over to the reforged item.

This means you can Reforge a piece to look like a different set and still keep the custom color you applied. Your dye work is preserved through the process.

What to Do Before Importing a Save into Remastered

This is the most important thing for returning players. If you are importing a Next Gen save from the 2022 update, your catalog is built from whatever is in your inventory or stash at the moment of import.

Anything you sold, dismantled, or never picked up in your current save will not be available until you find or craft it again.

Before you update to Remastered, do these things:

• Check your stash. Any gear you want to use as a Reforge skin later needs to be in your inventory or stash at the time of import.
• Keep unique armor sets. Sets like Tesham Mutna, Viper School gear, Ofieri armor, and Dol Blathanna gear only drop once. Their stats may not be the best, but their looks are worth keeping for Reforge use.
• Craft gear you want in your catalog. Grandmaster Witcher sets are craftable on demand, but it is faster to have them ready than to farm the diagrams again later.

If you are starting a brand new save, none of this applies. You build your catalog naturally as you play.

How to Unlock Yoana Early

Yoana’s quest sends you to Undvik in Skellige, which only requires around 1,000 crowns for passage. Once there, you need to kill an ice troll to loot her tools from a nearby cave and take down the local archgriffin.

Both fights are manageable even if you are underleveled. They may take a few tries early on, but neither is impossible with patience. Once you complete the quest, Yoana opens up armor Reforging immediately.

How to Unlock Hattori Early

Hattori’s questline sends you running back and forth from the Novigrad docks multiple times, and it ends in a fight against Cleaver’s dwarves that is rough if you tackle it early.

A few tips for doing it underleveled:

• Kite the dwarves toward your allies rather than engaging head on.
• Use Axii to thin the group out before committing to a fight.
• Keep Quen active at all times.
• Lean on strong attacks when you get an opening.

Once the quest is done, Hattori opens up sword Reforging. Neither unlock is gated behind a level requirement or a specific point in the main quest. If you are willing to travel, both can be available from very early in the game.

Best Gear to Chase for Reforging

Reforging works best when you separate what performs best from what looks best. Your endgame stats come from Grandmaster Witcher sets. Your appearance can come from anywhere in your catalog.

Here are some armor sets worth collecting specifically for their looks, even if you would never wear them in combat:

• Tesham Mutna Armor – A dark, heavy look associated with the Blood and Wine expansion’s vampire questline.
• Viper School Gear – A sleek, minimal look with a distinct Witcher aesthetic. Only obtainable through Hearts of Stone.
• Ofieri Armor – An exotic appearance from a desert culture. Drops only during specific Hearts of Stone quests.
• Dol Blathanna Armor – Elven styling with a distinctive silhouette. Easy to miss if you do not explore Toussaint thoroughly.
• Wolf School Gear – The canon Witcher look for Geralt. Available through scavenger hunts and highly recognisable.

For a full breakdown of which gear sets are worth chasing for combat performance, see our Witcher 3 Wild Hunt Remastered best builds guide where we cover each Grandmaster set in detail.

Is Gear Reforging Worth Using?

Yes, especially if you care about how Geralt looks through a long playthrough. The Remastered version added significantly improved visuals with better lighting, shading, and skin rendering. Geralt looks better than ever, which makes the appearance of his armor and weapons matter more.

The feature is also completely optional. You do not need to engage with Reforging at all if you just want to run the best stats and move on. But if you spent forty hours in the original game wishing you could wear Grandmaster Ursine stats while keeping the Wolf School look, this is exactly the feature you were waiting for.

For full details on every change that came with the Remastered update, see our Witcher 3 Patch 5.0 all changes explained and the official Patch 5.0 notes breakdown.

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